Apple to announce handheld games console at WWDC?
3G iPhone launch a decoy
Comment It's Monday lunchtime, and Apple's online store is still out of iPhones. Left-of-field speculation says this means the 3G iPhone's release is coming sooner than thought. If so, what might Apple have in mind for its Worldwide Developer Conference instead?
In recent weeks, UK iPhone suppliers O2 and Carphone Warehouse have both sold out of 8GB models, following a £100-off price promotion. They also sold out of 16GB handsets, though both admitted late last week that they would be getting more stock in. Indeed, today O2's website is showing 16GB iPhone availability, though CW's site is not.
All this time, Apple has been offering iPhones too. But today, both the UK and US Apple Store websites have the 8GB and 16GB iPhones listed as "currently unavailable". The fact it's no longer doing so, several weeks earlier than anticipated, suggests that stocks really have run down ahead of the introduction of the new, 3G model.
But when is that going to take place? So far, everyone has assumed that it'll arrive in June - a year on from the point at which the first model went on sale. Apple likes anniversaries - for instance, it tends to update the iPod line every year at the same time.
However, the recent spurt of iPhone support announcements from carriers - Vodafone will be offering it in ten countries, SingTel in four - suggests that the next iPhone might be coming sooner rather than later. Why announce a whole month ahead of the anticipated launch?
MacRumours.com has an interesting suggestion. It re-iterates a rumour published by website Switch To A Mac late last month: that Apple will announce and ship the 3G iPhone in May, and Steve Jobs will show off a completely different mobile device at June's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Switch To A Mac's source is said to have strong Apple ties, and to have been right about last year's Mac OS X Leopard delay.
Does the rumour make sense? Maybe. Yes, Jobs used his 2007 WWDC keynote to detail the iPhone's availability, but bear in mind this was arguably because he was unable to talk about what developers really wanted to hear about: Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5's release had just been delayed in order to get the iPhone OS completed in time (Apple said). Leopard was to have shipped in June.
This time round, that pressure is off. Apple has already announced its developer-centric iPhone plans, and has been offering a pre-release version of the iPhone Software Development Kit for some months now.
That implies Jobs might instead seek to engage developers with a new device, as suggested. Past speculation has pointed to handheld gadgetry, either a Mac tablet, a new Newton or a bigger iPod Touch.
COMMENTS
re itunes
i think the nigglers have a good point. for about a year now the sole purpose of updates to itunes seems to be to add more ways for me to buy things through itunes store. i can't remember the last update that actually improved the functionality of the app itself
heh
I actually have a mac, I use it for video encoding primarily during the production of my podcasts.
itunes has slid a hell of a long way since I first started using it on either OS (I'll still stream my music across the network using itunes).
There are so many things that irritate me about it now - major niggle at the moment is if I don't listen to a podcast for 2 weeks, it'll stop grabbing files and then wait for you to either manually tell it to download or you listen to one of the files, there's no option to turn this "functionality" off. The whole point of podcasts is that I listen/watch them on my time. I've since moved to using juice again.
The windows itunes is absolutely horrible (about 4 different background services running because of it) but I'm sure those same services are running in the background on the mac version too and cause slowdowns and spinny beachballs when you try to use it with any proficiency.
I got plenty of use out of the dock, carry case and powerbrick (which essentially was the sum total of the extras), at the very least you'd think that apple would bundle a carry case with the damn thing (it being portable and liable to scratching) for the price you pay for it.
Also, don't forget that a lot of the price drop would be down to the economics of the IT industry as well as cheapign out and charging for everything they used to bundle in with the device.
Also, the price hasn't really fluctuated that much. My 30gb 3rd gen cost me £320, my 60gb 5/6th gen (first of the video ipods) cost me £270-ish.. with about 3 years between them. 3 years and a £50 drop but how much are you "nickel and dimed" for the various other bits that £50 more used to get?
@Alphaxion
but your comment misses the point. You paid an extra hundred dollars in 2000-2003 for a lot of stuff people just didn't use. Now you get or four times the storage, large color screen, $100 less, and the option for you to pick and choose which accessories you want. Apple has become more environmental, so that some of it, the rest is just to give you more choice.
Your complaints about iTunes, is all because you're still using Windows. iTunes on the Mac is much more nimble since it doesn't have to deal with the absurdities of a Microsoft product running underneath. So just get a Mac, and quit complaining. Thanks.
@will
Actually, the best thing about the ipod wasn't the device but its symbiosis with itunes. itunes was what made the ipod with its frankly brilliant smart playlist and syncing system (far superior to the granular, but time wasting drag n drop).
This meant that I didn't have to do anything other than make sure my files were correctly tagged up and any new stuff I added to itunes and was caught by the smart playlists and automatically dumped to my ipod the next tiem I charged it up.
*that* was the key selling point... however, itunes has been on the decline for the past couple of years and has become a bloated 70's elvis awaiting for that one more feature/burger to give it a cardiac arrest.
Apple really need to sort out itunes and return it to the sleak app it used to be, or else its ipod sales are gonna mystically dry up should someone else come up with their own syncing solution that is as great as itunes used to be.
Also, for those who think that apple can dominate the portable console market, may they have better luck than the others who tried (neogeo, atari, wonderswan, gizmodo, nokia...) but in all seriousness, it'll be a nigh on impossible task to overhaul the 65million DSes that are already in peoples hands (mine included.. I also have a PSP but that has its own problems).
@ted
Yeah, they really care about what they sell to you. Only the highest quality and a generous amount of product when you fork out that premium.
I would advise that you compare the contents of the box you got with a 2nd to 3rd gen ipod (which is when I bought my first one, the moment they added windows support, tho I had to use ephpod because the bundled musicmatch was great example on how not to make a media application) with the contents of what you get today and see how much they care about you and your experience.
Lets see shall we?
ipod circa 2002/2003
ipod
ear phones
dock
powerbrick
firewire and/or usb cable
software
cleaning cloth
carry case (originally this was a belt clip and semi sturdy thing, 2005 this had become a low quality cloth "skin").
ipod circa 2008
ipod
ear phones
usb cable
universal dock adapter (actual dock sold separately for £30)
yeah, they're going the extra mile to make you special *rolls eyes*
